Several journalists fired, forced to resign in Turkey

New
York, July 25, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that
numerous Turkish journalists, including the leading columnist Yavuz Baydar, have
been fired or forced to resign from news outlets in apparent retaliation for
their independent coverage of anti-government demonstrations that swept the
country.

"Media owners are dismissing their sharpest, most
popular journalists to appease government leaders at the expense of their own
readers," Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said.
"This toxic cycle of government pressure leading to media dismissals is
depriving the Turkish public of the intellectual diversity and richness it deserves."

The
Turkish Union of Journalists said on Monday that it had documented at least 22
cases of journalists being fired and another 37
who had been forced to quit their jobs. The union said the dismissals were in
connection with the journalists' coverage of the June protests at Gezi Park.
The demonstrations were violently
quashed
by police, who used tear gas and water cannons to quell protesters and
journalists covering the events. The union did not say on whose order the
journalists had been fired or forced to resign. It was also not clear what
press coverage was deemed offensive enough to result in the dismissals.

But
CPJ research shows that media owners or editors in Turkey fire critical
journalists after being pressured by the government. Sometimes, the dismissals
are pre-emptive, in which the editors or media owners dismiss journalists who
could be seen as antagonizing the government. The dismissals usually follow
a public statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
or another government official, that calls out journalists for being
irresponsible and damaging Turkey's interests.

Baydar, who often
contributes analysis and opinion on Turkish
press freedom for international media, was fired this week from his long-time
position as ombudsman at the daily newspaper Sabah, according to news
reports. The dismissal came after Baydar had written an article reportedly
saying that an ombudsman should be able to operate independent of the
publication's editor-in-chief.

Baydar
was chastised in a public letter by Sabah editors in late June after
writing a column that criticized the government's reaction to
the Gezi Park protests, according to news reports. The editors did not publish
the column. Baydar took a temporary leave of absence from the paper.

He had also written a piece in TheNew York Times on July
19 that criticized Turkey's media owners for, in his words, being cowed into
"exercising editorial caution" and "subverting press freedom."